


Butterfly Kisses

by PinkLetterDay



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Barry is having baby-making feels, Dawnie is as incorrigible as her Dad, F/M, Iris is confused, More like smut-adjacent, This will all probably be jossed next week, but who cares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 08:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13477701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkLetterDay/pseuds/PinkLetterDay
Summary: Barry is almost certain the sweet-faced girl who saved him was his daughter. He's not sure how to process this surreal experience, nor how to tell Iris about it.





	Butterfly Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> Toytopia is a made-up store. Dont sue.

  
_Doe brown eyes, so familiar yet so strange, sparkling up at him, like they knew him. Loved him. Trusted him._  
  
_A kiss on his cheek, light as a butterfly._  
  
_"Stay safe, Daddy. I'll see you soon."_

_***_

"You're revved up tonight," Iris murmured against his lips as his hands roved over her body. They rucked up her loose nightshirt, pressing her as tightly to his bare chest as he could manage without hurting her.

They were sat lengthwise on the couch, her knees bracketing his hips, smooth thighs locked around his waist. The thin fabric of his sweat pants tented beneath her firm bottom. She smelled so good he felt light-headed as he chased the delicious scent along her neck.

"I got out of prison after not touching my beautiful wife for weeks. I'm going to be revved up for a while." There was the perfect spot. He licked the smooth skin at the hollow of her throat, taste and scent mingling on his tongue.  
  
Iris groaned and fell forward above him, heavy sheaf of hair falling over both of them in a curtain. "Yeah but it's been...ah...over a week, babe. Not that I'm...oh..hmm...complaining, but -,"  
  
"But?" Barry impishly worried her earlobe between his teeth in a way he knew made her bones go liquid. Iris clutched at his shoulders, breath stuttering.  
  
"This...you're not playing fair...oh God," she melted against him with a moan as he kneaded her breast. The sound of her desire made him harden achingly. He attacked her mouth with his lips and tongue, hand carding through the silky fall of hair to cradle the back of her head. She tasted like heaven and he couldn't get enough.  
  
"Iris," he moaned into her mouth, pressing the heat of her core flush to his straining erection, "let's make a baby together."

Suddenly he found himself on his back on the couch, wife straddling his waist. She pinned his chest down as they both tried to calm their ragged breathing.  
  
"What - ?"  
  
"Barry, what's going on?" said Iris, her expression flickering between determined and concerned. "I know you missed me. God knows I missed you, but there's been something off with you ever since you got back."  
  
"I'm not off, Iris," Barry looked up at her earnestly. "In fact, I feel better than ever."  
  
"Not that kind of off," said Iris. Barry really wished she would stop sitting astride his erection if they were going to have a conversation right now because it was very hard to think when she looked like sin in a nightshirt. "You're all...glowy. And gung-ho. And distracted. Now you bring up kids out of the blue?"  
  
"Do you not want kids?" He raised himself up on his elbows, suddenly concerned.  
  
"No no, I do," Iris looked away, flustered. "Just, we haven't talked about this. At all. You just got out of jail, we've both been so pre-occupied with one superhero crisis after another that neither of us are certain we can still keep our day jobs and you want to make a baby _now_?"  
  
"I mean, not  _now_ now," he said defensively, then faltered at Iris's unimpressed look. "Well, it's not like we're hurting for money, between the STAR Labs patents and my parents' estate."  
  
Iris rolled her eyes. "I know that. I'm the one who actually keeps track of our portfolio. What I mean is, why so suddenly? Why now?"  
  
Barry huffed and flopped back on his back, staring at the ceiling. He didn't know why he hadn't told Iris. It just felt so tenuous - like if he voiced it out loud and dragged the surreality of the memory into the plain logic of day, it would seem ridiculous and insane.  
  
Of course their entire lives were ridiculous and insane.  
  
"Barr," Iris's tone was gentle as she looked down at him, dark eyes filled with worry. "The last time you were like this, I had just pulled you out of the Speed Force. That ended with a version of you dying in front of me."  
  
There. That was a reason why he shouldn't trust mirage-gifts from this nebulous entity he was yoked to. It made him think things would work out and then yanked the rug from under his feet every time.  
  
His eyes locked on her loving gaze as she wound her fingers through his own. Bringing their joined hands to his chest, she pressed them over his heart, feeling it beat under their palms. Her hands were so small and her eyes so soft.  
  
Exactly like... _her's._    
  
_Small brown hands against his chest. Slender fingers. The butterfly flit of lips against his stubble._  
  
_"...Daddy..."_  
  
"I think I saw our daughter."  
  
Iris stilled above him. "What?"  
  
Barry gently pushed her aside and sat up, Iris sitting on her heels beside him. He stared at the flames glowing in the fireplace, remembering the red and yellow flowers, the sunshine gleaming on the tray of glasses that seemed to reflect the sparkle in the girl's eyes.  
  
"I first saw her at the church..."  
  
***  
  
They sat in silence, absorbing the words finally spoken out loud. Iris sat swaddled in a throw blanket at the other end of the couch as Barry finished his tale.  
  
"And then she just disappeared?"she asked, staring transfixed into the fire.  
  
"Yeah," breathed Barry. "I think I was the only one who saw her. Or spoke to her. It's like she was a dream or something."  
  
His chest felt heavy at the thought. Her sweet smile when she had looked up at him, the way her presence felt so new and yet as familiar as his own heartbeat. The sense of completeness he had felt in her presence. It had to be real.   
  
"What did she look like," asked Iris, finally turning to him.  
  
_Amazing. Beautiful. Precious_. "She looked like you," he said, wonderingly. "She had a rounder face and maybe my chin? But her eyes and smile were all yours. And she was small-made, like you. And babbled like me," he couldn't help chuckling as he remembered her awkward rambling.  
  
Iris still looked stunned. "Can you draw her?"  
  
Barry froze. He had completely forgotten that was a thing he could do. Or maybe hadn't dared to.  
  
In two blinks of an eye, he had two broken pencils, a slightly smoking sketch pad and a remarkably life-like portrait of the girl. Iris scooted forward and took it in her hands reverently.  
  
"She looks kind of like my Mom too," he said, looking at it critically.  
  
Iris huffed a laugh. "I was gonna say she looked a bit like Wally."  
  
There was a long wondering silence as they both took in the picture. Then they finally looked at each other and burst out laughing.  
  
Barry didn't quite know what was so hilarious except the tremulous bubble of joy and hope that he had been carrying had burst into a wash of sheer exhilaration at Iris's incredulous, happy laughter. It felt like their daughter was already with them.  
  
Iris's eyes were shining at him. She brushed a hand gently against the girl's face, a tear falling on the paper. "Do you think it's really our kid? She really called you Dad?"  
  
"Daddy," he corrected, smiling dopily. His little girl with Iris's smile was going to call him Daddy. His wife's grin mirrored his.  
  
"Should she have done that, though?" she wondered, still carressing the drawing. "Wouldn't she have known not to disrupt the timeline if she was really a time-travelling speedster?"  
  
"Maybe Allens are just genetically incapable of being discreet and not interfering with the past," said Barry ruefully and Iris giggled.  
  
"Oh, we are going to have a very pointed talk when you get back, young lady," she told the drawing, drawing a fond finger down its cheek.  
  
He chuckled a little deliriously. "You can't be too hard on her. She helped get her old man out of prison after all." Like he had gotten his father out, eventually. _Dad, if only you could have seen her too. She looks like Mom and Iris._  
  
"So the babbling is genetic, huh?" his wife teased. "I wonder if she got the chronically late gene and the nerd gene as well."  
  
"As long as she didn't get the chocolate obsession gene and the 'lying to Dad and scaling the tree to break curfew' gene," Barry retorted. Then blanched. "...she's actually going to do that isn't she?" He said in horror as Iris chortled. "She totally looked like a little troublemaker. Well, that's on you."  
  
Iris rolled around laughing. "On me! You got into as much trouble as I did! Remember wrapping Dad's car around a tree?"  
  
"You talked me into that!" he exclaimed, wagging an indignant finger in her face. "I was a good kid. You were the one who talked me into half the trouble we got into!"  
  
"You can prove nothing, Allen!" she cackled. "I won't let you slander me like this to our kid!" She shrieked and slid off the couch as Barry tried to goose her in retaliation.  
  
"Do you think we can baby-proof an entire city?" The enormity of the situation started to sink in as he began mentally reviewing the terrible life choices of his youth. "Jesus. Joe is going to laugh himself stupid at me. He always said he would." He buried his face in his hands as Iris succumbed to a fresh peal of laughter on the floor.  
  
"Oh my God," she gasped. "I just realized - this is why you suddenly had a yen to buy something for Digg's kid the other day at the mall!"  
  
Barry blushed. "I just...wanted to browse, okay? I only vaguely remember sitting in on your tea parties when we were kids. Wanted to see what kind of toys they had for little girls now."  
  
"And?" Iris had that expression she got when he was doing something she deemed quite adorable and usually resulted in her jumping his bones.   
  
"And I found a Beebo," he said, and at Iris's horrified look hastened to add, "which we are never getting, ever. And this cute yellow bumblebee plushie I nearly bought - it reminded me of her, I don't know why -"  
  
"A stuffed bumblebee reminded you of a college-aged kid?" she asked skeptically.  
  
"I never said it made sense," he said defensively. "She just looked so happy and sunny. I thought yellow was her colour, kind of like how you look amazing in red."  
  
He felt warm when Iris's "Barry-is-going-to-be-mauled-in-T-minus" look intensified. "What else?" she asked.  
  
"And...do you know how few black and brown dolls there are at Toytopia?" he burst out in indignation. "They were right at the back too! What the hell! It's the same with action figures. Obviously our kids are going to have mine but they should have Wally's as well. There were so few Kid Flash action figures in the store." He frowned, making a mental note to see what could be done.  
  
Iris looked at him strangely. "They?"  
  
Barry started self-consciously at his own slip of tongue. "Well...she could have brothers and sisters," he stammered, fidgeting with the drawstring of his pants. "I don't know how many you want."  
  
Iris sat back down on the couch and took his hand, drawing his eyes back to her. "I wouldn't mind more than one," she admitted. "I mean, we both grew up only children and even though we lived together after your Mom died, it was never a sibling dynamic."  
  
"Would have been weird if it was," said Barry dryly.  
  
Iris smiled at him. "It was pretty cool growing up in the same house as my best friend," he kissed her hand. "But I'll always wish I had had Wally too. I hate that I missed his whole life."  
  
"He'd have been a brat and broken your toys and driven you up the wall," chuckled Barry.  
  
"He would," she agreed laughing. "And I would give anything to have had that."  
  
They subsided into quiet contemplation. "So you don't think I'm crazy to be creeping into kids' stores getting all worked up about toys for kids we may or may not have?" asked Barry sheepishly.  
  
Iris turned him to face her and slid her arms around his neck. "No," she said, gazing at him in that way that made him melt. "I think it means you're going to be an amazing father."  
  
He put an arm around her shoulders as she snuggled against him. A warm, glowing happiness ran unfettered through him and he truly relaxed for the first time since Christmas. Why did he always forget how good Iris was at easing the knots in his chest, putting things into perspective? His protectiveness sometimes made him forget that she, more than anyone, was his grounding force. It was foolish of him to have kept this from her for so long.  
  
He was dreamily wondering whether his little girl would like Singing In The Rain too when he felt a dampness against his neck.  
  
"Iris?"  
  
He gently pushed her shoulders back to see that she was crying. His heart jolted in pure dismay. Iris so rarely cried. "Iris, what's wrong?"  
  
"Do you really think we can have this?" she asked him, tears sliding down her cheeks unchecked. "Have her? Or is it something we're going to dream about for years only to have it taken away?" She clutched at him desperately, "What if someone erases her from the future? What if something takes her from us? What if -"  
  
"Hey hey hey," Barry gathered her into his arms and she buried her face in his shoulder. "That's not gonna happen."  
  
"You can't know that," she sobbed. "Every time we think we get to be happy and safe something always happens! All I wanted to do was get married and spend our lives together and you keep being taken from me! Again and again and again!"  
  
She was wracked with sobs now, wrapping herself desperately around him as though bodily trying to keep him in place. Barry's heart splintered in his chest listening to her cries, helpless to soothe her with promises he knew were empty. His own tears fell on her hair, allowing himself to be crushed in her frightened death grip, holding her bruisingly hard right back.  
  
After a while her sobs trailed into hiccups and she started to draw away. He held her fast on his lap, kissing her hairline. "I'm sorry, Barr," she sniffled. "I don't know what came over me."  
  
"Don't be sorry," he said tenderly stroking her hair. "We've been put through the wringer and you've been so damn brave and strong through all of it. You get to break down when you need to."  
  
Iris leaned against him, sad and tired. "I wanted to be strong for you."  
  
Barry gently pulled her chin toward him to look him in the eyes and kissed her swollen eyelids. "You are the strongest woman in the world," he said, "but I'm your husband. Your best friend. I'm the person you get to be weak and scared in front of." He drew his hand along her cheekbone and she nestled her face into his palm.  
  
"I can't promise you that we'll get to have her," said Barry sadly. "I can't even promise we'll have kids at all. Or even a dog, what with the life we lead. I can't promise that the future we want will happen or that we'll be able to protect our kids from everything the world throws our way.  
  
"But what I can promise you, Iris West-Allen," fierce resolution set his blood afire, stinging his eyes, his voice cracking with the pressure in his chest, "Is that I'm going to fight with everything in me to stay with you. I promise you we are both going to fight tooth and nail to protect our family."

He slid both hands under her hair to cup her face with fierce tenderness, her loveliness blurred in his vision. "We are going to fight for her, Iris. Together."  
  
She brushed her thumb against the tears tracking down his cheek. "Yes," she said gently, "we are."  
  
They sat in a pensive blanket of silence, bathed in the glow of the firelight, listening to the slowing of each other's breaths in the stillness. Their daughter's face smiled up at them from the drawing fallen at their feet.   
  
"Barry," Iris whispered softly, "will you make a baby with me?"  
  
In answer, he slipped his hands under her nightshirt and slid it off her body. Slipping out of his own sweats, he pulled her down with him onto the soft shag rug in front of the fire and drew the blanket over their bare skin, creating a cocoon that shut out the world as they melded together beneath it.


End file.
